The New Racists: Jew Hate

If you had thought that the only qualification needed is to excel at your chosen art form and then see if you can gather audiences, you were wrong. That is not enough anymore -- certainly not if you are Jewish.

The treatment of the reggae star Matisyahu is something new. For Matisyahu is not an Israeli -- he is an American. For a while, only Israeli Jews were made pariahs among the nations because of an unresolved border dispute involving their country. Now it is Jews born anywhere else in the world who can be targeted in the same way. They are singling out Jews -- Jews and only Jews.

Habima performers were insulted and vilified while on stage at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, trying to perform "The Merchant of Venice." None of the protesters seemed to see the irony of vilifying Jews on stage during that of all plays.

Spain has its own border issues. Perhaps Spanish performers should henceforth be quizzed about their political attitudes before they are allowed to perform abroad? Maybe the rest of the world should demand that all artists from Spain sign a statement or make a video supporting Catalan independence if they are to be allowed to perform in public?

Only one country and one geopolitical question is addressed in this way. Turkish artists are nowhere in the world asked to condemn their country's illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus -- an occupation, lasting more than four decades, of half an EU member state.

Their singling out of Jews, wherever they are from, makes their racist motivation abundantly clear. If the Rototom Sunsplash festival wants to take part in this racist BDS fever then it is them -- and not Jews -- whom the world must make into pariahs.

Are you a performer who wishes to appear in public at any point in the future? If so, you might have to bone up on geopolitical affairs -- and then ensure that you have all the "correct" views. If you had thought that the only qualification you would need would be to excel at your chosen art form and then see if you can gather audiences, you were wrong. That is not enough anymore -- certainly not if you are Jewish.

This week the news came in that a Spanish music festival had cancelled a planned performance by Matisyahu, an American reggae star. Matisyahu became famous as the "hassidic reggae star," although he left Orthodox Judaism in 2011. He no longer has a beard of wears a skullcap, but he does remain proud of his Jewish identity. Next weekend, on August 22, he was due to perform at the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Benicassim, north of Valencia.

Unfortunately for anyone simply interested in music, a group of local Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists found out about Matisyahu's upcoming performance. They claimed that Matisyahu is a supporter of "an apartheid state that practices ethnic cleansing," and demanded that the festival cancel the performance.

Matisyahu is of course not the first Jew to suffer this type of pressure. In Europe, and increasingly in America too, any and all performers who come from Israel can be abused and vilified in the name of "progressive" values. In London, the Jerusalem String Quartet and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra have been the targets of attempts to cancel their performances. When the performances have gone ahead, they have had to suffer obscene and threatening performance interruptions by protesters. The same has happened to Israeli theatre companies such as Habima – whose performers were insulted and vilified while on stage at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, trying to perform "The Merchant of Venice." None of the protesters seemed to see the irony of vilifying Jews on stage during that of all plays.

Anti-Israel activists of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Spain demanded that the Rototom Sunsplash music festival cancel a performance by American reggae star Matisyahu, claiming that he is a supporter of "an apartheid state that practices ethnic cleansing." Festival organizers cancelled Matisyahu's performance.

Jewish Israeli artists have become used to being targeted and vilified in this way. But the treatment of Matisyahu is something new. For Matisyahu is not an Israeli -- he is an American. Yet after the intervention of the BDS protestors, the festival's director tried what he presumably thought was a perfectly reasonable request: Filippo Giunta asked Matisyahu to produce a "signed statement or video" stating "in a very clear way" that he supported the creation of a Palestinian state. This was made a precondition of performing. "If you sign these conditions, you can continue the performance," the festival's director told the artist.

Understandably, Matisyahu refused to respond to this ultimatum, and festival organisers cancelled his performance, which was due to be just one of a number of performance stops Matisyahu is making in Europe and America.

It is to be hoped that everybody who believes in artistic freedom and rejects political intimidation can now make for the nearest performance by Matisyahu, whether they like reggae or not. Personally, the actions of the Spanish festival organizers have created the only inclination I have ever felt to attend such a concert.

But perhaps we could also initiate some other geostrategic questions that might be demanded of all other performers in the future. Spain has its own border issues, as nearly every country in the world does. Perhaps Spanish performers in the classical and pop world should henceforth be quizzed about their political attitudes before they are allowed to perform abroad? The whole question of Catalonia, for instance, is deeply fraught and fought over in Spain, with exceedingly strong views over independence on all sides. Maybe the rest of the world should demand that all musicians from Spain sign a statement or make a video supporting Catalan independence if they are to be allowed to perform in public? We could go back and forth in our allegiances of course -- and make the Spanish artistic community jump to our every whim and U-turn. Perhaps then we could decide that citizens of other countries could be made to jump through our whims on the Spanish border questions too?

Of course, such a course of action would be obscene, as it would be with any other country. But it is always instructive that only one country and one geopolitical question is addressed in this way. To my knowledge Turkish artists are nowhere in the world asked to condemn their country's illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus -- an occupation, lasting more than four decades, of half an EU member state. Such a demand would be far more appropriate in Spain or any other EU country. And it has certainly never been demanded of people of non-Turkish nationality that they call for the withdrawal of Turkish forces and Turkish people from Cypriot territory before they be allowed to perform in public.

Nor do demands on the tortuous Western Sahara question come up in this way. Both of these issues -- to seize just two -- are far closer to home for Spanish citizens. One lies only a few miles south, while the other involves a fellow EU member state. But to demand such an action or statement from an artist as a prerequisite to perform would be not just outrageous, it would be regarded as surreal. Why then is the BDS campaign able to normalize such a demand, and for a festival to cancel a performance based on non-compliance with such grotesque demands?

The answer is the fever of our time. For a while, only Israeli Jews were made pariahs among the nations because of an unresolved border dispute involving their country. Now it is Jews born anywhere else in the world who can be targeted in the same way. They are singling out Jews -- Jews and only Jews. And their singling out of Jews, wherever they are from, makes their racist motivation abundantly clear. If the Rototom Sunsplash festival wants to take part in this racist BDS fever then it is them -- and not Jews -- whom the world must make into global pariahs.

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38 Reader Comments

Jules Posten • Aug 21, 2015 at 10:50

In the style of Ogden Nash: How odd
Of GodTo ChooseThe Jews

One of the baser accusations directed against the Jews has been the vile lie that Jews have murdered Christian children in some ritual and then utilized their blood in the preparation of Passover Matzoh. At the time when this vicious lie first surfaced, the Pope in Rome pointed out that orthodox Jews would take great care that there was not a drop of blood in the food they consumed. Never the less this lie was taken as fact and who knows how any Jews were murdered in Pogroms as a result. The way this blatant lie was taken as reason enough to murder Jews and destroy their houses of worship, proves that a rose by any name would still smell.

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Dennis Mckay • Aug 20, 2015 at 23:08

How far away can swastika arm bands and yellow stars be from reappearing as fashion accessories in the former Western Europe?

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Jules Posten • Aug 20, 2015 at 14:56

This irrational hatred of Jews never ends. It's been going on since God knows when and there's no sign of it's abating. You may ask, what have Jews done to merit such abiding hate? There is no answer to that question. From time immemorial, Jews have asked that same question over and over. The best answer was in the film "Ship of Fools" when a non-Jewish character asked a Jewish character "Why the Jews? The Jewish character answered "It's all the fault of the Jews and bicycle riders." The non-Jew was taken aback and asked "Why the bicycle riders?" The Jew replied "Why the Jews?" There is no answer to this age old question, it just goes on and on.

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Robert Geller • Aug 19, 2015 at 10:07

Simple solution to this problem. Boycott Spain. Stop traveling there and buying the few products that they actually export. The idea of economic boycotts is not new, and those who impose them on others for false and bigoted reasons, should feel the sting, as well.

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J. C. Salomon • Aug 19, 2015 at 00:34

The Rototum Sunsplash event organizers have been deaf to criticism, blocking on Twitter anyone who points out their bigotry to them and complaining about the "unfairness" of the "attacks".

I therefore suggest that people not bother contacting them. Instead, go to http://rototomsunsplash.com/ and look up the event sponsors. Contact them and ask for a statement on this topic; for example, "Where does your organization stand regarding the bigotry and antisemitism displayed by the event organizers?"

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Harvey • Aug 18, 2015 at 17:31

As every Jew has known, from the beginning this movement has NOTHING to do with boycotting Israel. Anyone Jewish is treated the same by this evil group of anti-Semites. There only difference from their radical left wing and Muslim friends is that they are just a mouthpiece at the moment and not a terror faction.

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Alan • Aug 18, 2015 at 15:39

Any performer who doesn't withdraw from the music festival at this point should be boycotted for being complicit.

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Yehoram • Aug 18, 2015 at 06:37

A colleague of my father working in the seventies in Agriculture Research Institute in Israel ordered an instrument from an instrument producing company in Cambridge UK. He got a letter from them, which I still possess, where this company asks him for a signed letter by himself attacking his own Israeli government, as a condition for sending him the required instrument.

This is the kind of cruelty the Nazis indulged in by setting members of a family against each other, for example asking a mother to choose which one of her children shall be killed the last....

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Baron Revelman • Aug 18, 2015 at 03:11

Anyone who had previously doubted that the BDS and all other anti-Israel protests are viciously anti-Semitic can now shed those doubts. This despicable behaviour is directed at an American citizen.

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Amy Whinston • Aug 17, 2015 at 23:44

Your title is: "The New Racists: Jew Hate". Guess what -- This is not so new.

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Johnny Griffin • Aug 17, 2015 at 22:43

While the entire Middle East is burning and Muslim countries are killing Christians and gays by the thousands, practicing full-on racism through dictatorships and law, only Israel is being targeted because no one wants to mess with 22% of the population which is Arab...and only Jews are being targeted time and time again, every time with a different bogus excuse...so easy to pick on 0.2% of the world population.

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Nancy Cuddeback • Aug 17, 2015 at 20:13

I say people should boycott Spain! Is it any wonder their economy is such a mess? What a bunch of morons. I do wonder how many of these protesters were Muslims?

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JB Silver Nancy Cuddeback • Aug 18, 2015 at 19:46

I would reckon most were Muslims, with a smattering of Far Left 'fellow-travellers'. That is the usual mix in Ireland at anti-Semitic or 'anti-Israel' (same thing, but they think it fools the rest of us!) demonstrations.

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Gee • Aug 17, 2015 at 18:25

I bet Matisyahu had a contract to perform. Then he should sue them for breach of contract -- should bankrupt the festival.

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Helen • Aug 17, 2015 at 15:53

Spain is not a novice to the racist anti-Semitism: it has demonstrated its ugly face already in medieval times when the Spanish Inquisition persecuted maranos/conversos -- Jews who converted to Catholicism, and pogroms were rolling through Toledo and other Spanish cities.

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Elizabeth • Aug 17, 2015 at 14:39

Thank you Douglas Murray for calling a spade, a spade.... as you always do.This article should be published in every mainstream serious paper.

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Dennis Elizabeth • Aug 17, 2015 at 23:39

Hypocrisy is a stamp all over the BDS movement. Self-righteous over bearing mindless hoards of stupidity. It's amazing they can walk.

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David Walker • Aug 17, 2015 at 14:16

"For Matisyahu is not an Israeli -- he is an American."

Which rather nicely debunks the lie that the so-called anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist movements such as BDS are not basically plain out-and-out antisemites - which has been obvious all along, of course.

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Leigh Halprin • Aug 17, 2015 at 13:49

In South Africa, a student resolution was passed to have all Jewish students de-register from a mainstream university there. In California, Jewish candidates running for student elections were asked to declare their affiliations with Israel and distance themselves from it.

Spain, despite its manipulative and strategic attempt to provide redress for its expulsion of the Jews by giving citizenship to some descendants, is still anti-Semitic. Further, it establishes a dangerous precedent for the return of Palestinians to Israel.

Defenders of BDS have maintained that its not about Jews; It's only about Israel. Only the most naïve believe that BDS is something different than anti-Semitism. These examples, none of them anomalies, prove it.

Spain and the world have learned nothing from the Shoah and the past.

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Steve • Aug 17, 2015 at 13:40

In the meantime, these same idiots will fight against Islamophobia -- meaning fight for the right of Muslim fascists to settle in Spain. Anything to bring down the liberal democratic order! It is all so predictable. The Left does not change. They will soon have to find another outlet for their bullying though the Jews are not going to play along by showing up for loyalty oaths (to Palestine).

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Mels. • Aug 17, 2015 at 13:24

Thank you, Douglas Murray, for an exceptional piece. If only it was in the popular press! Unfortunately, to many Jews it's no longer a big deal. Today, they would likely be surprised if there were no such racist demonstrations singling them out. In Israel, they suffered almost a year of rocket attacks before retaliating properly, in the belief that might ameliorate anti-Semitic demos in the diaspora. Some Hope! Almost worldwide anti-Semites had their day -- some a few days. We've become stoical, I fear.

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Ulysses • Aug 17, 2015 at 11:53

Spain has been making moves for reconciling with Jews for nearly a century culminating in last year widening of access to Spanish nationality for any Jew descending of Spanish Jews. In WWII it also saved thousands of Jews.

And in Spain, unlike say in France, there are active and influential non-Jewish media that are firmly pro-Israel. For the Spaniards, they have an ambivalent relationship with Jews. There is anti-Semitism (especially on the Left) and several common insults refer to Jews. But on the other hand, many Spaniards, both out of admiration for Israel's achievements and on the feeling the 1492 expulsion was both a mistake and an injustice, are philo-Semitic and pro-Israel. More than in most other European countries.

Now if you want to support Catalan independence, you have it all wrong, since Catalanists are distinctly pro-Arab and anti-Israel/anti-Semitic.

PS: Would you blame the whole United States for an incident involving a reggae festival in a sh***y city of about 18,000 inhabitants? Something that in addition is contrary to the policy of the US government?

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JB Silver Ulysses • Aug 18, 2015 at 19:59

I must admit I agree with 'Ulysses'. Spain has been trying to come to terms since the 1850s with their past crimes of persecution, forced conversion and expulsion, and many Spanish Catholics are very pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. And they saved over 50,000 Jews during the Holocaust, personally directed by Franco himself.

I know Hungarian Jews who escaped to Spain and then to Morocco during the years 1940-1946, and they were very active in sending 'care' packages to Hungarian Jews and getting many Jews out of Horthy's Hungary. They say that Gen. Franco PERSONALLY intervened numerous times. On the flimsiest of 'proofs', Jews were declared 'Spanish dependents' and given papers to enable them to get out of Nazi clutches.

Many of those demonstrating against Jews and Israel are Muslims, which of course is a big surprise...to anyone who spent the last 40 years in a bunker 50 ft. below the surface!

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AmericanMom • Aug 17, 2015 at 11:25

I am shocked that in London they did not provide more security so that any racist anti-Semite disturbing the music or theatre performances was not immediately arrested for a hate crime. Spain has and always will be an insular anti-Semitic country. We, as Americans, should boycott anything from Spain. The nerve. To openly be Jew hating in 2015.

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Mike Conlon • Aug 17, 2015 at 11:15

Such an appalling clear example of anti-Semitism at this Spanish event should, as the article writer advises, make this event a "taboo" event. The whole country of Spain should see some down-tick in American tourism as a result, but the story would have to be widely read for that to even have a chance of occurring. Since anti-Semitism is a non-story for most nationwide American media, most will never hear of this.

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Sheldon Tupperman • Aug 17, 2015 at 10:59

That a Jewish reggae performer is treated this way is of course outrageous. But I wonder if those people in Spain make ALL Irish Catholics (in the Republic and in Northern Ireland) responsible for the actions of the "catholic"(?) IRA, if they consider THEMSELVES responsible for the crimes of the Inquisition and for the looting of their colonies in South and Central America and for the despicable way in which they treated the natives.

I could go on and on and on with thousands of examples of examples of hate crimes like the pogroms in Russia and Poland, the Shoah. I would have to write a thick book. Every mentally sane person would of course refuse to blame ALL catholics for the Inquisition. But call anti-Semitism "anti-Zionism" and the whole thing becomes "politically correct." Pathetic!

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Fred • Aug 17, 2015 at 10:12

Adolph Hitler's 1933 BDS law has been revived by his new followers in many ways & forms. The above article is a good example, as are the many actions & activities that attack Jews in Europe and anywhere else. Anti-Semitism has been tacitly approved by European governments & US learning institutions. The worst racist displays since Hitler to please NAZI Muslim doctrines & excuses are shown and enacted. Freedom of speech has become a pervert's delight.

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Ora • Aug 17, 2015 at 09:38

Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. Jew-hatred was widespread throughout Europe and elsewhere before the Second World War. It was only after the facts of the Holocaust were internalized (by some) that Europeans and others felt the need to hide their feelings for a while. But now that time has passed and anti-Semitism is no longer a taboo. It is not just due to the Muslim immigration to European countries, though this is a contributing factor. It was simply added to the already existing antipathy to Jews.

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Javier • Aug 17, 2015 at 08:48

You must know that many Spanish cities and villages are now (since last local elections in May 2015) headed by extreme left-wing parties (they are organizing events like these) -- similar to Syriza (Greece) -- e.g. Podemos -- a neo-Communist party sponsored and backed by Venezuela, Cuba -- and Iran. No surprise at all -- the extreme left is today the worst enemy of Israel and the Jews in Europe. Check the program of Rototom -- round table and work shops to "free Palestine " -- performance of Venezuelan groups, etc. etc.

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JB Silver Javier • Aug 18, 2015 at 20:18

I agree with Javier - the culprits are the Far Left, who join with Moslem anti-Semites ( I mean Moslem anti-Israel 'activists' [;-)]), and are willing to ignore the Moslem persecution of Gays, Yazidis and Women worldwide, because they need allies to attack the 'Real' threat to World Peace, THE JEWS. As a person who is himself Homosexual, I'm most offended by members of LGBT type who parrot the Hamas and PLO anti-Semitic 'party line', even though they themselves would be summarily executed in most Moslem countries (or first raped and THEN executed).

And here I thought the violence was from Jihadi Islamists, kidnapping, selling into slavery and murdering non-Moslems, from West Africa to the Philippines, besides occasional forays to murder Jews or LGBT people or rape Christian children by individual Islamists in non-Moslem countries, especially in Western or Northern Europe, though Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America, are not immune. I guess I was wrong.

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JB Silver • Aug 17, 2015 at 08:36

Here is Mr. Douglas Murray, a non-Jew from the UK, pointing out this shameful anti-Jewish behavior. I wish self-hating Jews like Miriam Margolyes would learn from this gentleman to see the truth, instead of parroting the anti-Jewish BDS 'movement'.

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David Salinger • Aug 17, 2015 at 08:29

And the artists, almost all Black, say nothing. Interesting. As a White West Indian, I am forced to listen to Black West Indians holler racism at every turn. Black Silence. I cannot even use the "N" word in writing without all fire and brimstone raining down. And the Blacks say nothing.Dr David Salinger. Port Of Spain. Trinidad

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Sandra • Aug 17, 2015 at 08:18

I am a Christian and pray for the Jews. We bless you in the name of Jesus. I would love to stay in Israel. God Bless From Sandra Snyman

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JB Silver Sandra • Aug 18, 2015 at 20:22

G-D Bless you, Sandra, and thank you, from the bottom of my heart.Of course He Does, since He Said in Genesis and in Deuteronomy, "Those who Bless the Children of Israel, I Will Bless; and those who curse them, I Will Curse".Why don't you come to visit in Israel for 'Feast of Tabernacles, at the time of Sukkot? It is really great then.

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Michael Maguire • Aug 17, 2015 at 07:53

How refreshing to see the iniquity of the Amorites filling up at last. Perhaps now we can have some clarity after so many decades of obfuscation.

The Collins English Dictionary defines 'Zionism' thus:

"a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel"

But for a long time the wheeze amongst Jew-haters Ltd. appeared to be aimed at drawing a false division between the Jewish People and their historical, ancestral and National Homeland, Israel.

Having made the distinction, these unlovely individuals insisted on telling anyone within earshot, how they 'love the Jewish People and have many as their closest friends' but cannot help feeling revolted by the vile, evil, wicked Zionist State of Israel. And that, they insist, is why they they feel no qualms of guilt, about calling for the boycott or better still, destruction of the independent, democratic Jewish state of Israel, the basis of which was founded upon International Law in 1922 by the Mandate for Palestine which was administered (criminally incompetently, as one might expect) by Britain.

Nevertheless our sensitive citizens hope their declared love for all things truly Jewish will protect them from being perceived as "racists; anti-Semites; Jew-haters; HAMAS or Islamic Jihad Supporters; declared criminally insane; or being jailed under our race hatred laws."

Whilst their false division, between Jews and their homeland, might work unbelievably well amongst Muslim congregations in the Middle East, as they soak up the screaming sermons of Imams or the virulent pronouncements of Mullahs, sending the assembled multitude into a frenzied display of undying love for Islam, equalled only by their undying hatred of Israel. It doesn't have such a dramatic effect in Britain, where cold facts and their veracity are judged to be more important than displays of raw emotion, backed only by fiction, hearsay and outright lies.

But it is lovely to see the air being cleared and the world can see at last, the depraved thinking it must face up to and deal with.

It is however, nothing new, rare or exotic. Bare faced Jew-hatred is alive even after after some 2000 years of Imperial Rome blaming them for revolting against Caesar; Roman Catholic Rome blaming them for Deicide; Muslims blaming them because Muhammad said they should; and today's useful idiots blaming them because they hope to be eaten last!

Winston Churchill summed it up very well for us. All that openeth the matrix would do well to imbibe his words.

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." – Winston Churchill

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Chanah • Aug 17, 2015 at 07:47

Just wanted to point out what a good perspective this author has, about hitting the ball back to the court of the anti-Semites. His pointing out the hypocrisy and anti-Semitic actions on the part of Spanish event organizers showed how small such people are. He proved that such BDS garbage is anti-Semitic, not anti-Israel. The ball is in THEIR court to prove they have legitimate reasons to boycott Jews and that they're not acting out of anti-Semitism.

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Josephine Bacon • Aug 17, 2015 at 06:37

The Jews who hate Israel -- such as Gerald Kaufman MP, Stephen Fry, Myriam Margolyes, Gilad Atzmon -- think they are immune from the Jew-hatred that is disguised as being "pro-Palestinian," but their time will come. Remember Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Lodz ghetto: he thought he could placate the Nazis and save his own skin, and he even sacrificed his son to them, but in the end he was bunged into a cattle-truck with hundreds of others and ended up as smoke up the chimney.

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Albert • Aug 17, 2015 at 06:21

The article is spot on. Regarding Spain, I would have chosen the other nation instead of the Catalans, The Basques. That is a minor point.

What got my juices going is the title. The Title! Who came up with this one? "The New Racists: Jew Hate". Anti-Semitism is by far the oldest racism still around.